Conventional keyboards for computers, phones, and other electronic devices often include barriers that provide resistance to key movement. For example, one conventional computer keyboard includes a spring template having a number of cups formed from rubber or plastic. When a user of this keyboard strikes the keys of the keyboard, the cups are deflected and make contact with a flexible circuit board located underneath the spring template. This contact causes the flexible circuit board to send a signal to a computer connected to the computer keyboard. Users of keyboards, such as that described above, occasionally spill liquids on the keyboard. These liquids often pass through openings in the barrier or past the edges of the template such that the liquid comes in contact with the flexible circuit board or other electronic components of the keyboard, causing the keyboard to malfunction. Some have attempted to address this problem by providing aftermarket elastic covers for keyboards, such as often seen in restaurants and commercial establishments. Unfortunately, such covers interfere with key striking and quickly degrade due to repetitive use.
In addition, some keyboards for small electronic devices, e.g., handheld calculators and the like, have been constructed with the top surface of the keypad being a single plastic membrane, and the “keys” being small protrusions of that membrane.